U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton, R-Cortez, touted his own bill, which would allow governors and county commissioners to identify forests that need thinning and speed up logging in those areas. It has passed a committee but not the full House.

State politicians also offered ideas.

One idea is to align plans for job growth, energy production and logging, said state Sen. Gail Schwartz, D-Snowmass Village.

The Forest Service has tens of thousands of slash piles sitting in the forests. If private companies could use that dead wood, they could generate energy and heat. Biomass power stations could also be paired with sawmills, Schwartz said.

“One person’s waste becomes another person’s fuel or heat,” she said.

Aside from politics, participants said part of the problem is human behavior.

Udall pointed out that around 40 percent of Coloradans live in the fire-prone wildland-urban interface, and many of them don’t even know it.

State Sen. Ellen Roberts, R-Durango, said she knows how scary fires are because her family had to evacuate during the Missionary Ridge fire 10 years ago. But people like to pretend the peril isn’t so great.

“People like to forget. I think of the Hayman Fire and Missionary Ridge, and how quickly we put that behind us when the signs are all around us (that the danger remains),” Roberts said.